reached a crisis this morning, and a council of war was called by the
British Minister, composed of all the officers commanding
detachments. The meeting took place under the American barricade on
the Tartar Wall itself, apparently to give confidence to the men and
to make them ashamed of themselves. But the most curious part of it
all was that our commander-in-chief excused himself on the diplomatic
ground that he was sick, and amid the smiles of all, Captain T----, the
Austrian, presided and laid down the law. This clearly shows how
absurd is our whole system. Everyone says the Americans were quite
ashamed of themselves when the meeting was over, for the general vote
of all the detachment officers was that the position was well
fortified, easy to retain, and absolutely essential to hold. They say
the whole reason is that there is internal trouble in the American
contingent, and that one of the officers is hated. Whether this is
really so or not, I do not know; we never know anything certain now.
But although the American has but little discipline, as a sharpshooter
on the defensive he is quite unrivalled by reason of his superior
intelligence and the interest he takes in devoting himself to the
matter in hand. You only have to see these mutinous marines at work
for five minutes as snipers to be convinced of that. I saw a case in
point only a few hours ago. Men were wanted to drive back, or at least
intimidate, a whole nest of Chinese riflemen, who had cautiously
established themselves in a big block of Chinese houses across the dry
canal, which separates the British Legation from the Su wang-fu. This
block of houses is so placed that an enfilading fire can reach a
number of points which are hidden from the Japanese lines; and this
enfilading fire was badly needed, as the Chinese riflemen were
becoming more and more daring, and had already made several hits.
Half a dozen of the best American shots were requisitioned.